2009 BBL Playoffs

[robbe]

As expected, Bonn didn't really show up to play in Berlin, typical mentality of that team - they only win when they have to. Offensively, they didn't hit their open shots in the first half and completely resisted to establish any kind of ball movement in the second. Meanwhile, ALBA went hot in the third quarter from downtown, hitting 6 of 9.

Now all eyes will be on Game 4.

Some are saying Bonn is going to be nervous now. But how about this gesture to Bonn fans, Mister McElroy?

[fasoulaki]

@robbe

Assuming Bonn wins the championship this year. Do you think it will be possible to play the Euroleague games in the new hall, or the does the Telekom Dome not meet the Euroleague specs.

Imaginge Bonn would play the Euorleague games in the Lanxess Arena.where Rheinenergy Cologne played in Duesseldorf. ((

[Gruebler]

McElroy first time not playing with injury and ALBA won. Coincidence? It was a good game by ALBA and imo the difference was that they acted as a team and did non rely on Jenkins and McElroy too much.

EWE Baskets Oldeburg won against Brose Baskets 88:85 after OT. Oldenburg just is the team of the hour. They play good PnR spiced up with the athleticism of Foster and Paulding. Gardner is an excellent PG and their frontcourt is very well schooled players from FYRs. They should be counted as clear favourite for this years title.

[Gruebler]

Bonn won the 5th game @Berlin and beats ALBA Berlin in the semis 3:2. The final starts this weekend. Keep in mind that the champion will play Euroleague.

EWE Baskets Oldenburg vs. Telekom Baskets will be an interesting series. Oldenburg plays with a very short rotation starring PG Gardner, SG Foster, C Boumtje-Boumtje and SF Paulding plus some Forward/Centers from the balkan.

Bonn plays a 11-man-rotation. Stars are limited skilled PG Rowland, athletic sharp-shooter Frazier and shooting PF Brandon Bowman. On the center spot you'll see 130kg-big man John Bowler and Ken Johnson who leads the league in blocked shots.

It's a duel of balkan-schooled PnR and setplay with some US stars (Oldenburg) against hyperathletic teamplay which heavily relies on aggressive no-easy-baskets defense (Bonn).

[Campeondelmundo]

Well, thanks for updates.
anyway, for a guy who isn't usually following the German League, does there some major financial problems in teams? I know ALBA can handle it and keep themselves in EL, but what about the other teams?

[Gruebler]

@campeondelmundo

Here's the information you requested. If any questions remain open, please don't hesitate to ask.

[CWILL]

Hey guys,

what happened? No-one wrote anything about game 1 of the BBL finals?!?

Oldenburg lost Game 1 and the homecourt advantage in an exciting opening game. Bonn was a bit lucky at the end winning 72:74
Oldenburg's big man struggled with foul trouble. Scekic and Majstrovic were fouled out; Boumtje-Boumtje, who had an incredible game and finished with a doube double once again, played with 3 fouls in the first half. With Perkovic out for the season and german Daniel Strauch not given any trust by Krunic Oldenburg really struggled.
Also Jason Gardner had a really bad game, shooting just 3/13!

Bonn was led all the way by Brandon Bowman, who scored 26 poins combined with 7 boards. Ken Johnson made some crucial shots from the midfield and John Bowler added 9 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.
Oldenburg led at the half by 8, but their big man's foul trouble and no-one really being able to defend Bowman gave them a tough 3rd quarter. Bonn won this period 26-14 and was able to take over in the last quarter.
With Bonn leading 72-68 and just 20 seconds left the game seemed to be decided, but then Rickey Paulding made a three pointer and was fouled by Frazier.
Check this out!

After he sunk the free throw, the game was even with 72-72.
But then Oldenburg's Majstorovic made a terrile mistake, fouling Bonn's Bowman with just 3 seconds left while the american was taking an out of balance shot from downtown. He was rewarded with 3 free throws and made 2 of them. Oldenburg had the chance to inbound the ball from the midline, but Gardner commited a decisive turnover.

I think Bonn deserved to win that first game they were the better team overall.
But you have to give Oldenburg credit. They could have won this game with the last posession even though things were not really going their way. If their big man stay out of foul trouble and Gardner starts to perform as decent as he did against Bamberg, the series should be pretty open.
At Thursday both teams will compete again - this time at Bonn's Telekom Dome.

[Roy M]

Originally Posted by CWILL

Hey guys,

what happened? No-one wrote anything about game 1 of the BBL finals?!?

Oldenburg lost Game 1 and the homecourt advantage in an exciting opening game. Bonn was a bit lucky at the end winning 72:74
Oldenburg's big man struggled with foul trouble. Scekic and Majstrovic were fouled out; Boumtje-Boumtje, who had an incredible game and finished with a doube double once again, played with 3 fouls in the first half. With Perkovic out for the season and german Daniel Strauch not given any trust by Krunic Oldenburg really struggled.
Also ason Gardner had a really bad game, shooting just 3/13!

Bonn was le all the way by Brandon Bowman, who scored 26 poins combined with 7 boards. Ken Johnson made some crucial shots from the midfield and John Bowler added 9 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.
Oldenburg led at the half by 8, but their big man's foul trouble and no-one really being able to defend Bowman gave them a tough 3rd quarter. Bonn won this period 26-14 and was able to take over in the last quarter.
With Bonn leading 72-68 and just 20 seconds left the game seemed to be decided, but then Rickey Paulding made a three pointer and was fouled by Frazier.
Check this out!

After he sunk the free throw, the game was even with 72-72.
But then Oldenburg's Majstorovic made a terrile mistake, fouling Bonn's Bowman with just 3 seconds left while the american was taking an out of balance shot from downtown. He was rewarded with 3 free throws and made 2 of them. Oldenburg had the chance to inbound the ball from the midline, but Gardner commited a decisive turnover.

I think Bonn deserved to win that first game they were the better team overall.
But you have to give Oldenburg credit. They could have won this game with the last posession even though things were not really going their way. If their big man stay out of foul trouble and Gardner starts to perform as decent as he did against Bamberg, the series should be pretty open.
At Thursday both teams will compete again - this time at Bonn's Telekom Dome.

Great summary. tnx.
I understand, that the winner (champs) will go directly to the EL. license B

[CWILL]

Exactly, the winner takes it all!

I think Oldenburg is the team that clearly plays more "european" and should be able to play a better part in Euroleague than Bonn. Mike Koch's team plays excellent defense, but I question their one-on-one offense in a Euroleague game.
Never the less, I think both teams Oldenburg and Bonn really deserve to be in the finals and I like both, don't actually know who to cheer for. Cause both teams never won any title in their club history, but made a really good job in the last couple of years!

[robbe]

Originally Posted by CWILL

Exactly, the winner takes it all!

I think Oldenburg is the team that clearly plays more "european" and should be able to play a better part in Euroleague than Bonn. Mike Koch's team plays excellent defense, but I question their one-on-one offense in a Euroleague game.

I second that, but still I think that the American trio in Oldenburg plays pretty wild sometimes. They all take a lot of threes off the dribble, Krunic let's them go iso, and some off-balance shots as well. The 4-5 positions with Majstorovic, Perkovic, Scekic and Boumtje² is imo the more stable, the more experienced part of the team. Of course a team can do with a little bit of both, but having 1-3 with those guys, and 4-5 with completely different guys, that's a strange construct.

Majstorovic and Boumtje² are having excellent playoffs. But in the end, the 4/5 guys [Bowman, Bowler, Johnson] were Bonn's best players as well. Some interesting matchups there.

I don't think Oldenburg can win this series from the sidelines. Krunic does a beautiful job putting together a team, and he gets rewarded for that, as the results show. But ingame, he's making many more mistakes than Koch imo.

One guy I want to break a Lanze for is Vince Yarbrough, who, in my opinion, is the best man to man wing defender in the whole league. McElroy might be ideal to pressure point guards, Yarbrough is the complete package. Did a great job limiting Julius Jenkins and Casey Jacobsen in the ALBA series, and had a brilliant game against Paulding on Sunday. And we're talking about the two most dangerous scorers in the league here. Additionally, he won Game 1 in Berlin with his shooting, and had a big night offensively in Game 5 as well.

All in all, I was very satisfied with that performance, but Oldenburg is a gritty team that alway somehow managed to hang in there and clinch games in the final minutes. Exactly that could be the case on Thursday.

[goga78]

Originally Posted by robbe

one guy i want to break a lanze for

:d:d:d

[Roy M]

Originally Posted by CWILL

Exactly, the winner takes it all!

I think Oldenburg is the team that clearly plays more "european" and should be able to play a better part in Euroleague than Bonn. Mike Koch's team plays excellent defense, but I question their one-on-one offense in a Euroleague game.
Never the less, I think both teams Oldenburg and Bonn really deserve to be in the finals and I like both, don't actually know who to cheer for. Cause both teams never won any title in their club history, but made a really good job in the last couple of years!

I won't go inside a professional discussion between the teams, Robbe and the other friends do it perfect, much better then I can.

I just add some impression that I got when I watch Oldenburg twice vs' Jerusalem in the challenge-cup.

I was impressed from Perkovic, Scekic and Foster which killed JM from 3points.
Paulding has to many ups and downs, Gardner the same (both played in Israel before) and Boumtje Boumtje, who was far away from doing damages inside to JM.

[Trifilli]

So after yesterdays away win (78:81) Bonn leads the Finals 1:2 and can possibly win the championship with a home win tomorrow. No team won a game at home so far though... kinda reminds me of the 2003/2004 PO Finals

Until the mid of the 3rd quarter yesterday this series looked like some friendship games, no emotions, no energy from both sides. At least the part regarding the emotions changed a bit yesterday, it seems that Strasser and Kolodziejski managed to get into their opponent heads. That technical foul when Foster threw the ball onto Kolodziejski was key yesterday, Oldenburg showed nerves then, as we saw a similar scene a bit earlier as well.

Actually I'm impressed by the passion the german players of Bonn show throughout this series. Strasser stepped up big time and Kolodziejski is having an important role on the defensive end, bugging Oldenburgs backcourt over and over again with his aggressive D. This just proves that german players should be given more chances in the BBL...

Oldenburg should listen there, I really don't get why they didn't establish a similar system, integrating german players into the rotation. Instead they only use a 7-player rotation, something that hurts them throughout the series so far.
Bonns Coach Mike Koch does a good job there spotting Oldenburgs weakest point. Bonn continues to attack the rim, bringing Oldenburgs big men into foul trouble literally every game. That way Krunic also is not in the position to give his big men a rest as he'd like to, resulting in tiredness and bad decision at the end of the games (Majstorovic for example...).
And Bonn is playing an aggressive D on Gardner (although it could be much more aggressive), with changing defenders , keeping up the pressure, which results in a lot of awful decisions by Gardner.

On the other side I don't like Krunics coaching at all. Oldenburg plays the pick & roll like twice a quarter, that's about it. The rest of the offenses are wild run & gun, 1 vs. 1 isolations and crazy shots. Even if Paulding makes these shots - like yesterday - this is just no way to play good basketball, the rest of the team can't find its rhythm if it can't get a share of the ball.

And let's face it: Oldenburg in theory has the way better individual players than the limited Bonn (especially on the offensive end). Krunic just fails to use them properly, to establish a team play where more people will get involved.

Of course this helps Bonn, which really does not have a lot of options on the offensive end.
Rowland for example has zero playmaking skills, he doesn't see the court well, he couldn't get around a screen even if his life depended on it (if there's a decent screen set once in a lifetime - Bonns bigs just don't seem to know how to do so), he constantly takes wrong decisions and he throws away the ball without any pressure at times (like it happened in game 2). He's a good scorer though and made some crucial buckets during the crunchtime yesterday. But Bonn doesn't really have a decent PG and Oldenburg doesn't seem to be able to exploit that weakness.

Bowman is a streetballer who'll play great at times (like in game 1) but just can't be relied on, there's no way that he can play disciplined basketball.
Yarbrough made some very important (and difficult) threes yesterday, but he can't create for others either and he's not very reliable as well. And Ken Johnson is a shotblocker under the rim and can hit the midrange jumper on the offensive end - but that's about it.
In theory Frazier could provide some more creative elements, but he's playing injured and couldn't help the team so far in the finals.

In the end it comes down to John Bowler as Bonns most important player (imho). Even if he's not having the best shooting percentages... he's the one who's creating the space for the others, playing a great series under the rim, drawing important fouls, forcing the double team and scoring big buckets. And on top of that he played some really good help defense yesterday.
If he was just a better passer... nevertheless he's my MVP so far...

The other two key players are clearly the germans Strasser and Kolodziejski, like mentioned above. Strassers threepointer with the buzzer at the end of the 3rd Quarter was so important yesterday, he really stepped up on the offensive end and was only stopped by that unjustified unsportsmanlike foul (called by Boris S. - which the refs had to compensate on the other side later... ). But most importantly he plays with a lot of passion, both on the offensive and the defensive end. And Kolodziejskis offensive skills are so limited, but he does exactly what the coach expects from him on the defensive end - every successful team needs to have such role players, they're the secret heros...

If Oldenburg wants to return into this series, they have to play more controlled basketball, sharing the ball, searching for better options, having patience on the offensive end. Oldenburg can be lethal from the perimeter - but in order to achieve that their players need to find their rhythm, they need to get involved. And Krunic finally has to use some plays for his wings, and his shooting 4, the pick & roll once in a time or the occasional kick-out won't be enough, this is Bonns game...
Somehow I just fail to see how this is gonna happen though. If he didn't manage to do so until game 3, if he lets his team play this wild ball like yesterday during the crunchtime, then I don't see hope for Oldenburg.
Koch is just getting way more out of his team than Krunic so far (even though Koch made some big mistakes as well, especially in game 2).

Overall, if I look at the mere level of play, at the tactical details, at the class of the games, this series is awful - absolutely terrible basketball is being played. Somehow it's still fun though, we'll see a new champion, the games are always close and exciting - and unbelievable mistakes on both sides (like both fouls on the attempted threepointers in the final seconds of game 1) make the matches really entertaining as well, you just can't predict the result, even seconds before the end of the game.

Somehow I'm rooting for Bonn now, as I just don't like what Krunic is doing there in Oldenburg with a potentially better team - opposed to what Mike Koch is doing (whom I respect for his coaching, but whom I also like ever since he played for PAO, despite him being a weird guy) - and I hope that Bonn can lift the trophy tomorrow at home (and maybe that Mike Koch will visit his former team again next season, this time as an opponent coach ). But I certainly wouldn't bet on it - everything is possible in this crazy series...

[fasoulaki]

Having the Euroleague-next door should be also a strong motivation to cheer for Bonn. Even from Frankfurt you reach Siegburg by ICE wihtin one hour.

I am wondering what impact the title would have in Bonn in terms of budget and long term strategy. The goal shoud be to integrate more Germans into the team maybe by signing some prospects like Schwethelm and Pleiß (Schnief).

[Trifilli]

Originally Posted by fasoulaki

Having the Euroleague-next door should be also a strong motivation to cheer for Bonn. Even from Frankfurt you reach Siegburg by ICE wihtin one hour.

I am wondering what impact the title would have in Bonn in terms of budget and long term strategy. The goal shoud be to integrate more Germans into the team maybe by signing some prospects like Schwethelm and Pleiß (Schnief).

Koch recently said in an interview to a greek sport portal (http://www.gazzetta.gr/content/view/37042/38/) that the budget would be increased in case of an EL participation (the interview can be even understood the way that it's going to be increased either way). He added that Bonn has the infrastructure and the budget in order to be ready for that next step.

Infrastucture - yes, without a doubt. The new arena which belongs to the club certainly is a plus and should generate more income in the next few years. Until now it seems as if quite some of Bonns budget was used for the arena construction.
So I'd believe that the budget should indeed be higher than this year in case of an EL participation. The question remains though if Bonn would be in the position to have a budget which would allow the team to compete for a Top16 participation.

[Gruebler]

Oldenburg beat Bonn in final's game four. Bonn did not hit the threes (1/12). After Oldenburg PG Jason Gardner had a bad game in game 3, coach Krunic decided to have Je'Kel Foster bring the ball quite a while. Oldenburg showed what the individual players are capable of. Paulding (21p) was unstoppable again, Foster (20p) stepped up. And in the paint C Skecic did a good job (14p). Oldenburg dominated Bonn at least three quarters. The face of Bonn's players and coach Koch spoke a clear language: That was a game they could not win. Bonn did not have a glimpse of a chance to win against Oldenburg. Bonn's defensive intensity was not sufficient and offensively they seldom were able to play decent systems.

Overall it was a game that showed the strengths and weaknesses of the league. A lot of 1:1 game. Teams that sometimes lack defensive effort and decent team defense. Inexperienced players like Rowland who are good for some spectacular moves and steals but are not so capable of organizing a team. Bonn had 6 assists, while Oldenburg had 8....

[Gruebler]

As free video clips from the BBL are very rare, here's an exception. 90 seconds of Brandon Bowman (PF, Telekom Baskets Bonn). youtube

[Trifilli]

Boy, what a choking performance, by Bonn, Oldenburg and the BBL.

Bonn - how could they lose this one after Gardner missed both FTs? I mean, Rowland misses two FTs with Bonn up by 3 and 23 secs to play... and then the biggest choker of them all - Frazier - decides to make another stupid foul, allowing Gardner to score the +1, equalizing the game. Bonn still had the chance to win it with the last offense, but Strasser threw it away, completely unforced. And then Foster only makes 1/2, giving Oldenburg the lead by 1. But Rowland throws the ball away as well and Oldenburg wins the championship, despite playing like crap in the end, missing vital threepointers (Pekovic), taking bad / awful decisions (Pekovic, Paulding). But they benefited from Bonn choking even more.

Congrats to Oldenburg for winning the championship, their first one. They'll have a nice party for sure. And my sympathies to robbe and co., sorry for you guys that it didn't work out for just another time.
Overall this series really didn't deserve to be a final one. The only entertaining part was that all the games were close and exciting. The level of play was really bad though, I just hope that it'll get better next season - especially when it comes to coaching and the PG position - in the entire BBL.

Talking about entertaining parts: what an embarrassing day for the BBL, can you get any lower? First they refuse to let Eurosport televise the game on TV, because they're afraid that they won't get enough suscribers for their crappy pay-per-view internet stream - and then they can't even make sure that it works properly / at all...

[Roy M]

Amazing finish to the season.

Oldenburg is the new Champ!
A lot of thenks and flowers to Bonn and Rowland, which miss twice from the line 22 sec to go. 70:67 to Bonn and a stupid foul by Freizer on Gardner+ basket, lose ball by Srtraaser, and Foster made it from the FT line.
71:70 Oldenburg!

[fasoulaki]

The should exchange the Big T in Bonn by the Big L